Dr. Staci B. Martin
The Fulbright Program is the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange program in the world. Each year the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) awards 800+ Fulbright grants to American Scholars and Experts in more than 160 countries worldwide. At the TUSEF/Fulbright program in Thailand, only two of these scholars were accepted for the 2021 – 2022 grant year. Dr. Staci B. Martin of Portland State University’s School of Social Work has been selected as one of these Fulbright Scholars to teach and do research abroad. Martin exhibits the admirable research conducted within the school, contributing to its commitment to join partners that enhance both individuals and society.
The title of Martin’s Fulbright Scholarship is “Speaking for Ourselves Action Research (SOAR) and Co-Researching as a Tool for Situating Youth Knowledge at the Center for Research.” Martin will teach and do research at Chulalongkorn University’s Center for Social Development Studies, PhD & MA in International Development Studies (MAIDS-GRID) in their (Forced) Displacement and Development program in Bangkok, Thailand. She will teach a series of seminars on peace-building, research methods, and youth & migration at both Chulalongkorn University and the Tham Hin refugee camp with the Suan Phueng host community. Martin will co-research with these three partners, focusing on the role of hope and how our emotions contribute to peace-building, agency, and action that impact Thailand’s youth and specifically supports the integration of refugee youth in Thai culture.
Martin provides student practicum placements, coordination, and teaches courses in the Child, Youth, & Family Studies (CYFS) practicum program at the School of Social Work. She earned her Ed.D in the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program: Curriculum and Instruction from Portland State University in 2018. She also has a MA, Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and did post-graduate work at the University of London: Goldsmiths College.
Having lived and worked alongside communities in over twenty countries, Martin’s research and teaching interests include critical hope and despair, pedagogy of hope, refugee education, psychosocial & social emotional learning, and peace-building. By researching, co-authoring, and co-presenting in partnership with communities, she believes she can use her privilege to co-create spaces so those communities can authentically contribute their voices and solutions to the complex problems that impact them. In December 2021 the Routledge Research in Decolonization Education Series will publish Global South Scholars in the Western Academy Harnessing Unique Experiences, Knowledges, and Positionality in the Third Space, with Martin as lead editor and over 30 authors that identify as BIPOC and/or from the Global South. Learn more about Dr. Staci B. Martin’s selected research at PDXScholar.
The Fulbright Program has been supported for more than half a century by the American people through an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress and by the people of partner nations. It actively seeks out individuals of achievement and potential who represent the full diversity of their respective societies, selecting nominees through open, merit-based competitions.
Congratulations to Dr. Staci B. Martin on receiving a Fulbright for 2021 – 2022!